The Teacher Made You Pretend You're WHAT?

On the way home from school yesterday, my son, who's in the seventh grade, regaled me with one of the day's lesson. It was an exercise in Social Studies (itself a rather dubious subject) wherein he and his peers were presented with the following situation: Aliens have landed on Earth, and you suddenly find yourself forced to leave your home. That's right--you're a refugee. Now, what ten things would you bring to your new digs, a refugee camp?

Yes, folks, that cockamamie exercise is actually on the Ontario's Grade 7 school curriculum.

My son told me that the teacher took this exercise very seriously indeed. Some of the kids, on the other hand...not so much. One boy was expelled from the room when he included "a Samurai sword and costume" on his "I packed my bag for the refugee camp" list; another kid, a girl, was sent out for saying she'd take a Vietnamese women to do her nails (clearly, a most practical child, but one who could not get in sync with the excruciatingly sensitive multiculti/lefty/PC-ness of it all).

My son wasn't quite as cheeky (for a change). He said he'd probably take along video games and some books--to keep himself busy during what would likely prove to be a long stretch in detention. The teacher didn't think too much of that idea, pointing out that he'd probably be too busy trying to survive and would have neither the time nor the wherewithal to waste time in idle amusement. She also told him one thing he and the other refugees would for sure need is a passport--because no one can go anywhere (even, apparently, to an Alien-built refugee camp) without a passport.

My husband noted that the teacher (and the curriculum) is obviously unfamiliar with the way the refugee system in Canada actually works; how, in fact, if you want to claim refugee status, you want to get rid of your passport and any other official papers, and arrive here sans documentation. Whereupon I opined that the whole "lesson" is stupid, pointless, teaches nada abut the real world and was probably put together by the kind of lefty who gives money to Amnesty International or some other outfit that's big into the rights of the "indigenous," including "indigenous" Palestinians.

Which I suppose pretty much describes most of those who work for the province's Ministry of Edumacationing.